"I can answer for her, I think," said Mr. Baldwin.
"Well, you can’t see her to-night," said Miss Kendrick, "so you had better go with Mr. Hampden and bring the girl here. Then you can arrange with Miss Fillmore to-morrow."
"Why wouldn’t it be better," I said, "to leave the girl where she is till to-morrow? I shall tell Big Sam what we have decided and he can keep her safe."
"I see," said Miss Kendrick, "that you have oceans of confidence in Big Sam and those murderous highbinders. But I’m not a man, and I haven’t. I don’t know what will happen before morning. Now, if you’ll put on your hats and coats and go, you’ll relieve my mind."
"If you don’t like to go alone," said Miss Kendrick, with a saucy shake of the head and a very determined look about the mouth, "I’ll ask you to be my escort."
"But, I was about to ask--what will your uncle say?"
"Say?" cried the hearty voice of Wharton Kendrick, as his big frame filled the doorway and his ruddy face shone in the light. "Why, shovels and scissors, gentlemen, he would say just what she told him to. What’s it about?"
Miss Kendrick had risen, and with an emphatic nod of the head at this indorsement of a blank check in her favor, looked at us steadily.
"In that case, we’d best be going," said Mr. Baldwin. "Miss Kendrick can explain the case better than we."
"I shall expect you back in an hour," she said.
We walked down the street in silence, and I could feel Mr. Baldwin’s chilling disapproval of our errand radiating from him at every step.
"We had better take the Clay Street car down to the City Hall, and get a hack at the Plaza," I said at last.
"I suppose that will be the best way," he assented coldly. "Since we are in for this unfortunate business, the less notice we attract, the better."
His tone roused a flash of temper in me, and I replied tartly:
"If the business is so distasteful to you, there are plenty of streets that lead in the other direction."
"Very true," he said with a shrug. But his steady footstep told me that he had no thought of turning back. We fell into silence, and so continued until we reached the Plaza.
"What’s this?" I exclaimed, for at the corner of Clay and Kearny Streets a crowd was gathered, and a cheer, or rather a confusion of vocal applause, broke out as we approached.